The US hasn't really caught on with the tea thing, really. When you ask for tea, more times than none you'll get a minuscle metal container that only gives you a cup and half at the most. I want one of those humongous teapots to be in our restaurants, damn it.
Yeah; also, as mentioned not just in this office this morning (we have an American employee) but also in the Neil-handling Guide, an American cup of tea might not even be made with sufficiently hot water.
Yes, there's a way to make tea properly. Admittedly I'm not stringent about it, but I do use a teapot and boiling water, and I don't put loose leaves in a tea ball - I let them swim freely and unfurl.
Most of my tea is from the British grocery; I'm particularly fond of PGTips. When I'm in London, I always head over to Whittard's and stock up.
I'm actually a bit of a slob as far as tea goes (yes, slob, not snob). I don't like leaf tea, because even with the World's Greatest Strainer™ you still end up with stray leaves in the bottom of the cup. So I use teabags, specifically Lyons' Tea which is an Irish blend (in as much as the company's nominally Irish. I have no idea where they get their tea). The thing about tea, though, is that the water can have as much an effect on the flavour as anything else, so even making a mug of Lyons' on the other side of the country tastes different to what I'm used to.
I tend to buy broad-leaf tea that a strainer can catch. Some companies grind up the leaves into a powder and that's really annoying, and doesn't do much for the taste.
Yeah, I've noticed that where you areaffects the way your water tastes. Interesting stuff, that is. New Yorkers claim that the reaon their pizza is so good is because of the water used to mix their dough. I don't know if there's any basis to this, though.
I really have got to visit - I haven't been to Ireland yet. I have family in County Mayo. (Mom's side is Irish.)
Yes, Westport. I even know the name of the house - it's large & has been in the family since the 18th century. My great-great-grandfather was English and had 11 children with a Catholic Irishwoman in the 1800's and caused quite a scandal. The government wouldn't allow them to marry so the children were considered illegitimate, and when their parents died, the gov't tried to take the house away from them on the grounds that they weren't rightful heirs, and they pretty much told the gov't to fuck off. :)
GGGFather supposedly died from falling off his horse while foxhunting in his 90's but he was a well-known drinker and womanizer so we aren't sure if that story is a coverup for something more scandalous.
Most remained in Ireland in the 1900's but many of them went to America to avoid getting drafted in the IRA and/or to escape the famine.
Hah. I drove within a few miles of Westport two weeks back, although largely by accident (I was driving from Ballina to Galway without the benefit of maps)
Don't visit the south then, unless you ask for your tea "hot", it comes iced. Mind you iced tea is good on its own and better with vodka so long as you keep the stupid sweet&low out of it, but it's so not the same.
I didnt even have real tea until going to High Tea at one of the hotels down here just after graduating highschool.
Heh, I'm actually from the South. If you want iced tea, you order "sweet tea." If you want it hot, order "hot tea." And no no no you do not put sweet n low in anything. Yuck.
Or "unsweet tea", as I always have to ask for. For some reason people in my family like putting sweet-n-low in tea which is probably responsible for me seriously hating the stuff.
And outside of asian restaurants and tea houses, I don't think I've ever seen anyone order hot tea down here (sampling: new orleans, north louisiana, mississippi.)
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There's an official British standard for making tea, actually.
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Most of my tea is from the British grocery; I'm particularly fond of PGTips. When I'm in London, I always head over to Whittard's and stock up.
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Yeah, I've noticed that where you areaffects the way your water tastes. Interesting stuff, that is. New Yorkers claim that the reaon their pizza is so good is because of the water used to mix their dough. I don't know if there's any basis to this, though.
I really have got to visit - I haven't been to Ireland yet. I have family in County Mayo. (Mom's side is Irish.)
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GGGFather supposedly died from falling off his horse while foxhunting in his 90's but he was a well-known drinker and womanizer so we aren't sure if that story is a coverup for something more scandalous.
Most remained in Ireland in the 1900's but many of them went to America to avoid getting drafted in the IRA and/or to escape the famine.
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If you're not stringent about it, you'll be astringent about it! LOL OMG *dies* 8^>
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(love that userpic, btw)
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Mind you iced tea is good on its own and better with vodka so long as you keep
the stupid sweet&low out of it, but it's so not the same.
I didnt even have real tea until going to High Tea at one of the hotels down
here just after graduating highschool.
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And outside of asian restaurants and tea houses, I don't think I've ever seen
anyone order hot tea down here (sampling: new orleans, north louisiana,
mississippi.)